Cannon Fodder
by Chiuhaen
Summary: Curiosity killed the cat, but also the cringe-worthy thought of becoming friends with a smiley blond, training to be not only a killer but a certified killer, and dealing with the voice in her head. Not that she minded. SI OC AU.
1. Accidental Attack

Chapter One: Accidental Attack

 _An unintended attack which occurs without deliberate national design as a direct result of a random event, such as a mechanical failure, a simple human error, or an unauthorized action by a subordinate._

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Tokugawa Saiko had always been a strange child. Even according to her own mother who had the gall to admit aloud that the little girl occasionally freaked the woman out with her blank stares and dead expressions. Every time this quirk of hers was mentioned with nervous questioning laughs of "S-Saiko-chan what are you staring at?" Saiko would immediately attempt to alleviate her intimidating gaze with a small twitchy smile. Alas the happy expression would die as quickly as it was created. Saiko countlessly failed to maintain decorum as her thoughts constantly occupied her head instead of a smile. Along the way, Tokugawa Emiko formally gave up on having a normal child and continued to let the little girl do as she pleased.

Saiko thought about many things but most of her time was spent wondering if everyone else had a voice in their head that guided them right from wrong, Saiko did. The little 4-year-old girl pondered at why this said voice was content with telling her strange stories about anything and everything. _"Life ain't always easy kid, you gotta get over it eventually though."_ The voice would say with its weird accent when something has gone awry for Saiko. Saiko, in all her best efforts, tried to ignore the voice but it was always just there.

The voice had introduced itself to her once, a few months after her 4th birthday. _"Heya kiddo, I need to talk to you."_ It had remarked one day with all seriousness. Saiko waited till dusk to retreat back to her room for the night. _"I think I better tell you a little something about myself kiddo."_ The voice said. Saiko, instead of replying, stilled and listened more attentively to the voice she usually tucked away at the back of her head. _"Well, where do I start…"_ The voice sighed, _"Let's see, from what I know I'm not exactly supposed to be here, I'm not you per say, and heaven forbid you're definitely not me, but we do share the same head and I like to keep this said head out of trouble."_ Was all the voice explained before going quiet again.

Saiko finally mustered the courage to confront the voice once and for all, "Will you tell me your name? I can't keep referring to you as the voice." The added last bit sent the voice into a fit or chortling laughter.

 _"Keep that frank attitude kid, it'll get you places in life."_ Saiko hummed out a small 'okay', _"Anyways, I never really did tell you my name did I?"_ It questioned, Saiko shook her head as if the voice could even see her in the first place. _"Just call me Nana, that's close enough to my actual name."_

"It's nice to formally meet you Nana- aneue."

 _"That'll work I guess."_

Soon enough Saiko had grown accustomed to her little guest who continued to occupy her head with life lessons and what not. It was a symbiotic relationship, according to her sister one sunny evening, this meant that both host and guest benefit from each other without harm to either party. Saiko made a distasteful expression at this new found information, it made her feel like she and her sister were a dog and its fleas or something. Said spiritual entity had a good laugh about this.

 _"Hey kiddo,"_ the woman piped once, _"what do your mom and dad do for a living?"_ Saiko wondered the same thing for a few seconds before finally recalling the information she was told not too long ago.

"Mother is a Kunoichi for the village, I think she's at Jonin rank, and I never knew who my father was. Mother always said he was a formidable Shinobi." Nana 'hmmed' before going quiet again.

 _"Do you want to be a Shinobi Saiko?"_ Saiko nearly flinched, this was the first time she had ever heard Nana call her by something other than kid or kiddo, it was new but Saiko decided that she didn't mind the change.

"I'm expected to start Shinobi Academy this upcoming spring." The little 4 soon to be 5-year-old girl replied as she mindlessly dug though her assorted box of colors to find a green for the grass in her picture.

Nana let out a sigh, _"You didn't answer my question Saiko. I asked whether or not you want to be a Shinobi."_

Saiko finished coloring the last blade of grass, "I think it would be cool."

 _"Atta girl."_

Saiko could literally hear a grin from Nana's tone of voice. _"When you start academy, I'm going to teach you a few of my tricks of trade that'll for sure knock the shoes of your teach's feet."_ The little child felt her heart thump lightly, this was the first time someone had offered to do something for her sake. _"I love you as if you were my own kin Saiko, I really do, but keep in mind that I'm also a very tough teacher so don't start complaining when I make you lift bricks for breakfast and lunch."_

"I don't mind Nana-aneue, besides, I heard that clan kids get special clan training before even starting academy, so for someone like me who is not part of a clan, to be able to be on par with them will be a nice goal to reach." Nana snorted at Saiko's curt response and flimsy goals for the future.

 _"With my training you won't be on par with those brats kiddo,"_ Saiko felt her heart skip another beat of disappointment, _"when I'm though with you kid, you'll be even better than them."_

Saiko owlishly blinked at this.

As promised, Nana had kept her end of the deal and began teaching Saiko basic exercises as soon as the girl started the academy. These exercises, the woman had told her on day one, would fill in any holes left from academy training and would probably make her one of the most, if not _the_ most, flexible Shinobi in her class. Saiko didn't question nor complain about the slow pace of her daily routines, her sister always did seem to know what was good for her.

 _"Tell me a little about your classmates kiddo."_ Nana would say every once in a while when Saiko had finished her exercises for the day.

Saiko always frowned at this, "Nana-aneue, you're with me every single hour of the day, you should know how my classmates are."

The older woman let out a little whine, _"I just wanna know what you think of 'em."_ Saiko sighed and silently questioned the true age difference between the two beings.

"There are some of them who get on my nerves, like the blond one and his lackeys, they're unnecessarily loud and most of them are just boastful clan kids."

 _"Good."_ Saiko blanched at what came next, _"I want you to become friends with them Saiko-hime."_ Saiko blinked before making a noise of protest only to be interrupted by her sister figure's reprimanding tsks. _"Kiddo, the number one rule to being successful in life is to have good relationships with others."_ Saiko frowned at the thought of talking to someone other than the teachers at the academy, her mother, and her sister, the thought itself was unbelievable. _"The best way to start off is by making friends at school,"_ Nana continued talking and Saiko remembered finding herself dreading some of these life lessons, _"you may never know if any of these brats will end up doing great things in the future and you can definitely benefit from that!"_

The next few days at the academy Saiko had tried her best to take her sister's advice to heart, emphasis on the word tried. It was impossible the girl mentally declared. She had quietly observed them for a while, but just watching these kids and their antics gave her massive headaches and that was when Saiko decided to give up after 3 days.

There was a pair of Hyūga twins who at first seemed like promising friends until they opened their mouths and started acting like they were some kind of hotshots, the Nara heir didn't look like he wanted to make any new friends, and the Akimichi boy he always hung out with was more interested in his food than anything. Saiko almost settled on talking to the the two blonds but quickly crossed that idea off her list when the blond with spiky short hair smiled at her and the blond with longer hair looked at her for more than 10 seconds. "I can't do this Nana-aneue." Sighed an exasperated Saiko.

 _"You're not going to make friends just staring at them like that Saiko-hime."_ Saiko figured out shortly thereafter that her sister only called her that when she wanted to annoy or make fun of the little girl. Saiko huffed in response. _"If you can't make friends, how 'bout you just beat them into respecting you, you kids are starting those sparring sessions tomorrow right?"_ Saiko frowned, that was actually a pretty good idea, _"I'm sure their respect will turn into friendship as you get older."_

"Only if you say so Nana-aneue."

 _"Of course Saiko-hime, when have I ever been wrong?"_

Her sister, as it turns out, was wrong, _"I'm sorry Saiko, I didn't think that throwing one of the Hyūga twins over your shoulder and knocking the wind outta him would result in this weird rivalry between the two of you."_ Saiko frowned because the older woman honestly did not sound sorry at all. Now she had even more problems on her plate than necessary and Hyūga Hiashi would forever be sending glares in her direction every time he saw her while his friends snickered in the background.

"It was bound to happen Nana-aneue, one can never make too many rivals." Saiko replied in a resigned voice.

"Wow, Hiashi-sama, how do you feel now that you've been beaten by a girl in front of everyone?" One of their shared classmates haughtily asked the glaring Hyūga heir once all sparring was finished and the entire class was herded back in the academy building.

Saiko felt her fists clench on the edge of her desk and promptly ignored the warnings that came from the voice in her head, "What does my gender have to do with me beating Hyūga Hiashi-san?" In one of the rare moments when Saiko decided to let her emotions steer her actions, even her older sister admitted that the little girl had intimidated her, which Saiko only replied with a few apologies and promises of doing better to calm down in the future.

The other students, who went unnoticed by Saiko in her moment of blind rage simultaneously flinched at her tone of voice, and the fact that the table she was currently gripping had slightly cracked down the middle. "N-Nothing, Tokugawa-san!" The boy squeaked under her blank stare and dead grey eyes.

Saiko released her grip on the table and gave the boy her signature twitchy smile, "Good because if you meant to say something rude about us girls, I don't know what could possibly happen when my hands decide to grab your neck and squeeze until you stop struggling." A majority of the class gulped while the rest of them looked at Saiko with some kind of twisted sense of awe and new-found admiration.

 _"Saiko-hime, you're scaring the other little 5-year-olds,"_ Saiko blinked, _"and you broke the table."_

The little girl looked down at her handy work and slowly began rubbing the back of her neck out of habit, "Oh."

"Oh is right Tokugawa-chan." In her head, Saiko could hear her sister let out a stifled laugh at her sensei's inconvenient timing.

 _"This one's on you Saiko-hime; I tried to stop you but you didn't listen to me."_

Their sensei, according to her sister on Saiko's first day of school, seemed like the dark, brooding type that nobody liked but later they would find out that this was mostly because he was probably just done with all of his students. Saiko quietly admitted that she would be too if she had to teach this class.

"Sensei, Saiko-san didn't mean to break the table, Shinji-san said some unnecessary things to provoke her and Hiashi-kun." Saiko turned her head towards the familiar voice and lo and behold it was the spikey haired blond who, for some reason, smiled at anything and everything.

"Minato-kun, you don't have to defend them, I saw everything and I believe Shinji is due for some laps around the academy." Shinji paled and everyone snickered.

Saiko rolled her eyes at their level of maturity even for 5-year-olds, "I don't mind joining him Sensei, it's not fair to punish just Shinji-san when I was the one who broke the table."

"I'll join too, think of this as an apology for being slightly immature about losing in our spar." Hiashi glanced at Saiko, the clan-less Kunoichi who had managed to throw him to the ground, he had some questions to ask the girl so why not take advantage of the situation at hand.

Saiko turned to their Sensei, shrugged and began walking towards the door.

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 **A/N:** Look at me not finishing/writing my other stories and diving head first into another one lol... Because my fondness for Naruto was rekindled, this story and a whole ton of ideas for others just kinda happened. I've also been reading a bunch of other awesome Naruto fics and recommend you look in my favorite stories list to read them, not that you haven't already I'm sure.

On the other hand, If you have any questions or concerns about my characters or my perception of canon characters and events, like is Saiko a Mary-Sue which I would pray to God she isn't lol or if Saiko is going to interfere with any canon relationships which is a no, feel free to ask and I'll answer it somewhere in the next chapter.

Anyways I hope you enjoyed this! Till next time, when I decide to update.


	2. Acoustic Jamming

Chapter Two: Acoustic Jamming

 _The deliberate radiation or re-radiation of mechanical or electroacoustic signals with the objectives of obliterating or obscuring signals that the enemy is attempting to receive and of disrupting enemy weapons systems._

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Stepping outside, Saiko thanked whatever higher being that existed above for making the weather bearable enough to run in. Following right behind the boy, Shinji, Saiko began to jog at her own steady pace and tune out the rest of the noise around her.

"How did you do it?" Saiko jerked back into reality from her dazed pacing and nearly tripped over her own little feet.

"Dear Kami-sama, don't do that, you startled me."

"You say that but your unnaturally calm face contradicts your words and actions." Hyūga Hiashi, the one who nearly gave her a heart attack, bluntly commented.

In that moment Saiko, instead of answering the Hyūga boy's previous question, decided to quicken her pace only to have said boy catch up to her fairly easily, "How did you, a clan-less Kunoichi, beat me, the heir of the Hyūga Clan?" He asked her again.

"If I hit him hard enough do you think he'll stop talking to me?" Saiko wondered with all curiosity.

" _That's not how you make friends Saiko-hime."_ In contrast to her words Saiko couldn't help but hear the amusement laced in her sister's tone of voice.

Sighing, Saiko finished her second lap and proceeded onto her last, "What am I supposed to tell him then? That I've had this voice in my head ever since I was born that I refer to as my older sister who not only can teach me better taijutsu than his clan but also sometimes gives me faulty life lessons?"

Nana snorted, that was actually a fairly accurate description of the woman if anything, _"Tell him you learned it from Wikipedia, that's how I learned it and that's how I'm teaching it to you."_

"Wiki-what?"

" _Wikipedia, it's kind of like one of those jutsu scrolls, an instruction manual if you need a better term for it."_ The woman tried explaining.

"Huh, I've always just assumed that you specialized in that form of taijutsu, that's why you were able to teach it to me in the first place." You learn new things every day, Saiko silently thought, Nana let out a low cackle.

" _Nope."_ Resonated the older woman with an added pop to the end of her exclamation. _"I'm a gymnast, the flexibility and stretching thing we do every morning that you always seem to complain about is what I specialize in."_

"A ji-jimnust?" The girl questioned.

" _A gymnast is someone who trains in the art of gymnastics which is a sport that involves a lot of flipping and balancing. I'll teach you all the fun moves after you've mastered the stretching portion."_ Nana paused, _"I wouldn't want you to have an accident just because you haven't been taught to stretch properly."_ The woman said and went on to complain about the faulty academy system and why they aren't teaching these brats how to stretch.

If she hadn't been in the middle of running and trying to avoid a certain Hyūga at the same time, Saiko knew that her right hand would already be hitting her face out of slight frustration. "This information would have been nice to know about four months ago Nana-aneue." Saiko dryly stated whilst trying to ignore the annoying pestering that came in the form of one Hyūga Hiashi.

"I know you can hear me Tokugawa-san, I can see you twitch from a mile away." Saiko contemplated whether or not to actually reply to the boy for once or just feign innocence. "If you don't tell me I'll just use my Byakugan to see if you have any secrets that could have aided in your victory against me."

Saiko flinched, what would the Hyūga boy even see if he did use his clan's all-seeing eyes on someone who was casually sharing her mind with a nonphysical entity? Saiko honestly didn't want to find out the answer to that question yet. For now she would just have to keep her older sister a secret.

"Fine, I'll tell you all of my secrets." Hiashi smirked in triumph and Saiko couldn't wait for that look to be wiped off his face the instant she comes up with some half-baked lie, "I found an old scroll in my mother's study room that had instructions on some kind of outdated taijutsu and decided to learn it myself."

This made enough sense, her mother did have a study room and it was littered in miscellaneous scrolls and books her little fib couldn't be seen through unless something like- "I would like to see the scroll if possible." –that happened. Saiko mentally cursed, which earned a light scolding from Nana, and quickly finished her final lap around the school. With one last glance at the expectant Hyūga boy, Saiko hastily walked away.

" _Saiko-hime, the boy is still following you."_

"Can I just deal with this another day, I'm tired and I want to go home." To whom those words were directed to went unsaid but either way, Hiashi didn't continue bothering her and her sister just hummed in reply.

The next day however, oh the next day was complete and utter hell for the little 5-year-old girl. "Saiko-san, your fight yesterday was amazing!" The spikey haired blond greeted her that morning, "I'm sorry Hiashi had to be such a downer about it though, your moves were pretty awesome!"

"Uh-huh, yeah, that's nice." Saiko tuned the blond out.

"I don't think I've ever seen anybody flip someone much bigger than them over their shoulders like a sack of rice!"

"Sure, that's so cool" Droned the little girl who was actually paying more attention to the fact that the table she had broken the previous day was looking as new as ever.

"Minato you're bothering Saiko-chan." Saiko looked up when all formalities were thrown out of the window. Much to her own amusement, it was the other blond, Yamanaka Inoichi, the heir to the Yamanaka Clan. Man, Saiko mentally whistled, how did Minato end up joining this group anyways?

" _Because, unlike a certain someone I know, Blondie over here understands the importance of making friends Saiko-hime."_ Saiko rolled her eyes which both Minato and Inoichi thought was for them. The quasi brother duo shared a look and turned to Saiko with identical bright grins. If it weren't for the fact that the little girl knew they weren't siblings, Saiko would have mistaken them for brothers long ago.

"I'm Yamanaka Inoichi."

"And I'm Namikaze Minato!"

Saiko shot the two of them her signature blank stare. The two returned her look with nervous smiles, were they expecting something from her or…? _"This is when you're supposed to say hi and introduce yourself to them Saiko-hime."_

"Oh."

" _Oh is right kiddo, now say something before they decide to give up on being your friend!"_

"Uhh… I'm Tokugawa Saiko, it's a pleasure to meet you?"

And that was exactly how Saiko found herself assimilating into Minato's little group of clan heirs. "I don't like this, everyone talks too much."

" _That my dear child, is called human interaction."_

"Saiko-chan!" Saiko wondered when exactly had they taken to calling her that. "We're having a little get together at Shikaku's house today, do you want to join us?" Minato was given the mantle for asking the girl to join them in any of their activities because he seemed to be the only one who was actually unnerved by her little quirks.

"No"

" _Saiko-hime, they're being polite and inviting you to join them, you can't just turn them down."_

"I mean, sure I would love to join, just thinking about it makes me super excited." Saiko was pretty sure the blond would have actually believed in her acting if it weren't for the Hyūga twins' interference.

"Do you do that often?" The younger twin, Hizashi, curiously asked her.

Saiko tried to act innocent, "Do I do what often?"

"That thing where your face never seems to match your words or actions." The older twin commented.

"Yes actually, I do, every single day." Saiko had a problem with the twins and it wasn't a personal problem or anything, she was just unusually jumpy and snappy around the only two people in class who could very well find out her secret any day now.

Hiashi shot her an amused look, "You should work on that, it's weird."

"Yeah, uh-huh, whatever you say." Saiko glared.

"So does that mean you can come?" Minato asked interrupting the duo's glaring contest. Saiko sighed and muttered a small 'whatever', "Nice!"

Saiko, much to her surprise, did not have any trouble asking her mother if she could hang out with her new, dare she say it, friends. She swore that the woman, had it been any day later than now, would have burst into tears, "Saiko-chan is finally making friends, Okaa-san doesn't have to worry anymore." Saiko pretended not to hear her older sister's unnecessary fit of laughter at the back of her head. "Have fun sweetheart." Emiko waved her off when Minato, through some kind of weird ninja networking, found her house, knocked on her door and personally escorted her to the Nara compound.

The little girl decided against making a comment about the boy's stalker-esque actions, "Why was I invited anyways?" She asked instead, "I don't exactly talk to you guys often enough to be considered a friend."

"Oh?" Minato replied, "I always thought we were pretty good friends."

"You consider everyone in our class a good friend, even if they hate your guts."

"That's true." Minato made an amused face, "You can be the exception, besides judging by your mother's reaction, you need to make friends." Saiko blushed an uncanny pink color that showed nicely on her abnormally paper, pale skin.

" _Do you see that Saiko-hime, it's not just me who knows you have a people problem."_

Saiko groaned, "Please don't tell anyone about what just happened, it's embarrassing."

"Oh so your face isn't actually broken?" Hiashi and his twin decided that now was a good time to show up, "I've always thought you were incapable of controlling your facial features."

If there was a wall, Saiko thought to herself, she was sure his head, if not her own head, would be repeatedly slamming into it. "End my misery right now Namikaze-san." She complained to the blond who only laughed in response.

"We're here now if that helps any."

Saiko stared at the little mix-matched group of kids in front of her and wondered who exactly she angered in her past life that caused her to be in this situation now. "This is Uchiha Fugaku-kun, he's one year ahead of us, and this is Uchiha Mikoto-chan. Fugaku, Mikoto this is Tokugawa Saiko-chan." Minato smiled while introducing Saiko to the two and vise-versa. One of which was in her class but she never actually talked to the girl before and the other honestly looked like an uptight asshole.

"You're the girl in our class who broke the desk in half with her bare hands!"

"Yes I am, it's nice to meet you." Fugaku only scoffed at her ruse of trying to be polite and Saiko knew in that moment that she didn't like the male either.

Mikoto smiled and Saiko heard Nana let out a small squeal, "Let's be good friends Saiko-chan, it's nice not being the only girl in this group now."

Saiko's usual twitchy smile crept its way onto her pale face, "Is it okay if I can call you Mikoto-chan?" The black haired girl nodded and a new friendship was kindled that day.

" _She's so adorable, almost like a little doll."_ Saiko, for once, actually agreed with her pseudo sister.

Shikaku, the host of their little get together, frowned and spoke up, interrupting her silent conversation with her sister, "Why do you always blank out?" He asked, "Who are you talking to in that head of yours?"

"Shikaku!" Inoichi scolded his friend with wide eyes. "You can't just ask her that!"

It was Minato's turn to groan this time, "We were supposed to ease into it Shikaku, not dive head first."

" _Damn, these kids are a lot smarter than I thought they would be Saiko-hime."_ Commented an overly pleased Nana.

This was the part where all the latches in her head started to piece together and Saiko finally understood why they called her here in the first place, because wanted to know more about her little secret. Saiko sighed and sat down in her spot, "You may want to take a seat for this; it's going to be a pretty long story."

"So what you're trying to tell us is that you have a voice in your head that tells you right from wrong and teaches you forms of taijutsu and exercises that nobody knows of." Shikaku pinched the bridge of his nose because this turned out to be more troublesome than he had expected.

"Basically, I mean believe it or not that's your choice."

"I believe in you Saiko-chan." Mikoto sent the girl a reassuring smile.

"I have heard of instances where people create entire entities in their minds to alleviate loneliness and reinforce their will power."

Nana laughed at that, "I'll have you know that she's laughing at you right now Namikaze." Saiko frowned, "How did you guys find out about it in the first place?" That was her only question for them, she was sure she was being careful about it.

"I heard you talking to yourself one day." Chouza smiled and offered her an apology chip which she gratefully accepted. "Then Minato-kun got curious and asked Hizashi-kun to look at you with his Byakugan." Of course it was them, it was always them.

"Oh, well now my secret is out now, surprise?"

* * *

 **A/N:** This story honestly got better feedback than I thought it would lol! And this chapter was actually meant for later publishing but because I'm going to be super busy these next few days, here it is early.

Also thank you to those who reviewed!

 **Madam3Mayh3m:** I also hope Minato doesn't die later LOL, I guess we'll both have to find out when the time comes, and I'll have you know that Déjà vu no Jutsu is actually one of many inspirations for this story.

 **TLGRIMN:** I'm actually glad you brought that up because originally Nana's lines were supposed to be italicized but I didn't know if it would make the readers feel awkward or not but now I know and thank you for that!

 **Ninja99:** Thank you so much for reading this, I also can't wait to see where I decide to take this story! I only have so many chapters planned out right now lol.

 **xxOchibixx:** As of this moment I don't plan on having Saiko paired up with any canon characters because I can't see her replacing any of the canon wives (but this could change due to popular opinion though LOL).

And for all who are wondering, I do have interesting plans for Saiko in the future and kudos to anyone who can figure out what role Saiko is going to play…

Finally thank you to all who favorited and followed, I hope you enjoyed this little chapter and I promise the future chapters are going to be much longer. Till next time.


	3. Ballistics

Chapter Three: Ballistics

 _The science or art that deals with the motion, behavior, appearance, or modification of missiles or other vehicles acted upon by propellants, wind, gravity, temperature, or any other modifying substance, condition, or force._

* * *

"Well the only thing we're getting from your explanation is that Nana-san is just a voice that exists in your head but that doesn't account for what Hizashi described to us when he looked at you through his Byakugan." Minato curiously looked at the confused pale girl; both her story and Hizashi's sounded like solid ideas when standing on their own but nothing added up in the end. "If Nana-san isn't something you've somehow managed to create in your mind, what is she then?"

Saiko opened her mouth as if she had a plausible answer but paused and bit her lips instead, "I don't actually know." Minato watched as their new friend flinched, probably at something the voice in her head had told her, "She is telling us not to worry too much about her." If the blond boy hadn't known any better he would have assumed that those were hostile commands coming from a spy or someone trying to mind control the girl.

"I think it will help clear up some misunderstandings if I explain to Tokugawa-san what it was that I saw." Minato was actually grateful that the younger Hyūga made an effort to act more considerate towards Saiko unlike his older twin.

"Go for it." Saiko curtly replied.

Hizashi frowned and tried to gather his thoughts and information together before speaking, "Tokugawa-san, do you know how the Byakugan works?"

Saiko shook her head, "I only know whatever they teach in class."

"Which is nothing." The younger twin sighed, "Our clan's dōjutsu allows us to not only have a 360 degrees view of our surroundings but we can also see things like chakra systems and all 361 of your tenketsu points." Saiko nodded, "When Minato-san asked me to use my Byakugan all I saw was your dim chakra light which was normal for someone of our age because we're all still developing our chakra coils but…" Hizashi paused for a moment, "When you started talking to yourself another light seemingly appeared out of thin air; at first I assumed it was a normal thing because according to my father everyone's chakra tends to sporadically flare at times but when I looked again the ball of chaka was hovering over you and wasn't in any way connected to any part of your own chakra system."

Minato was one of the few in their group who honestly believed that Saiko's story could have made sense if it hadn't been for the fact that who or what she was talking to was, at least according to Hizashi and later Hiashi as well, made out of raw chakra that was intangible and invisible to the naked eye but was inevitably there. When they had talked about it in their little group, both Hiashi and Fugaku had told them to report the girl to their sensei because she, who Minato already saw as a good friend at this point, could have very well been a spy for another village, Minato assumed that one of the two just didn't really like the girl and the other one didn't like anyone in general, but he, Chouza and surprisingly Shikaku didn't want the pale girl to get into any unnecessary trouble just because they were being silly and paranoid kids.

Silly, paranoid _Shinobi_ , Fugaku corrected. Minato understood their worries but assured them that Saiko was mostly as harmless as a fly, Hiashi scoffed at this because a girl who can break a table without the help of chakra is definitely not harmless.

Tokugawa Saiko, Minato observed, was an anomaly, a trump card if he needed a better word to describe her. In the days that the blond and his friends watched the girl for any odd or suspicious activity, the only thing they could determine was that, aside from having peculiar little quirks like her twitchy, sad excuse of a smile or the fact that she was basically incapable of any form of social interaction, Saiko was usually just indifferent about anything and practically everything. That, however, didn't seem to cause any unnecessary harm to her or anyone around her, save Hiashi who, even after all this time, was still bitter about losing to her, and this eased Minato's initial worries about the girl by a mere fraction if any. If Minato had anything to say about the girl himself, it was that she seemed awfully lonely for someone who had a voice in her head.

Minato noticed that Saiko was abnormally quiet even for someone as apathetic as herself. He silently pondered at the thought of what it would be like to have a voice in your head that no one else could hear besides you, the mere idea of it all felt very, for a lack of a better word, desolate. Minato, being who he was, desperately wished he could share with his friend, her world of troubles. "Has Nana-san ever forced you to do things you don't want to do?"Inoichi, their group's personal therapist and mind reader tried to ask the pale girl who settled with shaking her head as a reply.

"Of course not, she has only ever done and said things that have been beneficial to me." Minato felt more reassured as their idle conversation droned on longer and the mystery of a girl was finally opening up to them.

"Does that even make any sense to you?" Hiashi interrupted and Minato fought the urge to lop the older twin for always rushing in at the wrong times. "From what I understand, that thing is manipulating you to do whatever it says and you're just blindly listening to it."

"Saiko-chan, please you have to tell us if anything is wrong, not all of us can read minds you know." If this had been any other situation, Minato was sure they would be having a good laugh at that ironic comment.

Saiko lets out a long, exasperated sigh and a few explicit remarks that promptly catches the blond and his friends off guard. "Just don't worry about it," the girl defended, "she hasn't hurt me or anyone else." _Yet_. Minato thought to himself, _she hasn't hurt you or anyone else yet_.

-lol-

Hyūga Hiashi absolutely resents Tokugawa Saiko, he knows he's just being childish about it but he truly does not like the way the strange platinum haired girl behaves nor does he like how he was utterly defeated by such a sad excuse of a person. Not only was it humiliating for him but it basically made him a disgrace to the entire Hyūga Clan.

Hiashi found it a blessing when Minato began to have worries about the girl. The Byakugan user knew something was up with her from the start, and he was right, as always. Tokugawa Saiko, as it turned out, was probably a spy or an assassin for some foreign nation. He and Uchiha Fugaku were on the same page when it came to common sense, "Turn her in to the Military Police or to the Hokage." They said, but sadly none of their other friends shared this mindset.

"There's bound to be some logical explanation to this." Minato insisted that they don't turn her in because she hasn't actually done any harm to anyone yet. Fugaku tsked but agreed that they just didn't have enough proof to accuse her of any form of treason towards the village. Hiashi snorted at this because they don't need proof to turn in a spy, he thought.

In his head, Hiashi likes to think that the only reason why Tokugawa even won that match against him in the first place was because of the foreign chakra that was controlling her. It made sense because no clanless Shinobi, aside from maybe Minato, should be able to defeat him of all people, the heir to the Hyūga Clan.

His twin, Hizashi, laughed at his perfectly plausible theory, "Hiashi, brother, it's been months since that event has happened, you still haven't gotten over it yet?" Hiashi went quiet at his brother's words but still thought his theory made sense.

When Tokugawa Saiko arrived at Shikaku's house along with everyone else in their little group of clan children plus Minato, Hiashi was hell-bent on finding out the truth about the girl. What he never expected was that her story and their discoveries did not correlate at all. Hiashi knew a lie when he heard one and what came out of the pale girl's mouth was exactly that. "Ever since I was born I could hear this voice in my head," He scoffs because that made total sense, "she called herself Nana." Hiashi feels himself rolling his eyes.

Hiashi felt the slightest bit apologetic when Tokugawa Saiko looked utterly confused when Minato had Hizashi explain what the supposed voice in her head actually was. The girl flinched and Hiashi tried not to feel guilty about all the times he has antagonized her up until this very moment. Just as she admitted that she didn't actually know what was going on, Hiashi determined that this was a case of pure manipulation.

"Does that even make any sense to you?" He asked and from the corner of his eyes he could see Minato twitching an awful lot for some reason, "From what I understand, that thing is manipulating you to do whatever it says and you're just blindly listening to it." To put it simply.

Tokugawa Saiko huffs and lets out an exasperated sigh along with a few stings of curses. This catches the Hyūga and many others slightly off guard because Tokugawa Saiko, in their time of observation, has never expressed her emotions as openly as this. "Just don't worry about it," Hiashi watched with actual concern washing over him, "she hasn't hurt me or anyone else." Hiashi silently admits that he doesn't want that thing, or whatever it is, to hurt anyone at this point.

"How can we trust that you're telling the truth and not just trying to take advantage of our generosity?" He finds himself asking on behalf of the group of friends. Hiashi knows that he's probably being a bit too harsh on the girl but for the safety of himself, his friends, and even the entire village, there needed to be someone willing to do the dirty work.

Hiashi watches as Tokugawa bites her lips and slowly shakes her head. "I'm not forcing you to." He wonders if it's her resigned voice that finally makes him want to apologize for further alienating the girl from her peers but he doesn't in the end when she excuses herself from Shikaku's home with a weak smile and a tiny bow that made her already small frame seem even smaller. "It was nice meeting and talking to all of you, I'll see everyone tomorrow at the Academy unless you guys decide to actually turn me in to the police or the Hokage." The girl dryly states before prodding out of the room and politely excusing herself from the Nara house.

"We really messed her up didn't we?" Chouza asked to no one in particular.

-lol-

Mikoto doesn't quite understand why the boys decided to add her into this mess in the first place, maybe it was because she and Fugaku were from the same clan or maybe it was because they needed another female to fully understand the girl they were trying to figure out. Whatever it was she didn't know, what she does know, however, is that the moment she officially met Tokugawa Saiko the other girl was, like Minato put it, mostly as harmless as a fly until she was provoked.

The Uchiha girl remembers her first actual memory of the quiet girl in her class which was her breaking one of the Academy desks in half with her bare hands and that was plain awesome in her perspective. When Saiko joined them at Shikaku's house with her adorable smile and awkward gestures Mikoto knew that she wouldn't do anything to harm them, within reason. "Let's be good friends Saiko-chan." Mikoto couldn't help but giggle at the girl's reaction.

When Shikaku spoiled their plans right from the start, Mikoto resisted the urge to face-palm. Saiko, she noticed, was extremely uncomfortable under their expectant gazes and Mikoto shot the girl an apologetic smile. "You may want to take a seat for this; it's going to be a pretty long story." She says and Mikoto along with the others save Hiashi and Fugaku, who were too stubborn to listen to her, take a seat on the floor. "I'm not actually sure how to start." Saiko sighs, "Okay, ever since I was born I could hear this voice in my head giving me warnings when I was ever too close to the edge of something or playing with something dangerous; when I was about four the voice introduced itself to me, she called herself Nana." Mikoto listened intently to her new friend as she continued to weave her tale.

"I believe in you Saiko-chan." Mikoto reassured the girl who only return her efforts with a small smile.

Minato, thankfully, was the type of person who even Mikoto could rely on to lessen the brunt of their suspicion. The dark haired girl was actually grateful for her blond friend who always seemed to know the right words to say and when to say it.

The minute Hiashi opened his mouth Mikoto pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration, as much as she liked the boy, which wasn't actually that much now that she thought about it, Mikoto couldn't believe the words that came out of his mouth sometimes.

Mikoto sent her fiercest glare in Hiashi's direction when Saiko quietly excused herself from Shikaku's home for the day. "We really messed her up didn't we?" Chouza, one of her nicer friends asked. Mikoto sighed and uncaringly pointed a threatening finger at Hiashi.

"You do know we're expecting you to say sorry to Saiko-chan tomorrow right?" She pointedly asked the boy who stiffly nodded. "It's your fault for always being so pessimistic."

"I know."

"What kind of Shinobi are we if we can't even trust our own comrades?" Mikoto raised an eyebrow at the group of boys who only opted to stay quiet. "If Saiko-chan doesn't even understand what's going on we need to help her in any way we can, not make her feel bad about herself."

"Sorry."

"Save it for Saiko-chan."

* * *

 **A/N:** So I'm super happy for all the support I'm getting for this totally half-assed story lol. As you're reading this I'm probably already on a plane to Vietnam for a month-long vacation, which I am so sorry for not warning you guys ahead of time about! I'll see if I can update sometime during my trip this month but no guarantees. Also a super sorry for any mistakes you find in this story, a lot if it is written at like 3 AM when I should probably be sleeping but I'm not.

 **chi4ngo:** I'm actually looking forward to see how the rest of this fic turns out with Saiko and Nana being the eccentric pair they are. I also took your advice and wrote this chapter through 3 different POVs and hopefully this explains mostly everything that was left off in the last chapter LOL.

 **SHARP546:** To be honest, I didn't want to spoil that confusing piece of information in the last chapter. Since I've already given up on the concept of time lapse in this story, might as well just your question about the Byakugan in this one! I hope after this it makes more sense now?

 **lilLovelyanime:** Oops, I guess I should probably specify that this is an AU story, this will probably be specified somewhere as soon as possible. I'm sorry about confusing you and myself lol because I didn't actually know their cannon ages until now, but yeah this story is supposed to be an AU? If that changes anything, thanks for the help though!

 **Lulumo:** I totally get how you feel Minato and Kushina are meant only for each other! And about the whole Nine-Tails ordeal, I have a pretty good idea of the route I'm taking for that one, so please look forward to that in later chapters!

 **Azul D Oceanic:** LOL, and I totally enjoy writing these types of characters, so you're in luck!

 **lizy2000:** Ah! Thank you for liking my story I hope you enjoy the future chapters!

 **TLGRIMN:** Thank you so much! I'm actually quite glad to hear that everyone is mostly in character cause it's been a couple of months since I've actually watched Naruto so I was kind of worried that I would butcher one of them…

Thank you to all who favorited, followed, and reviewed! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I promise I'll try to write something in the next few weeks. Till next time!


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